Lambda To Anchor $33.1B Project Red Clay Campus In Alabama

Lambda will anchor Project Red Clay, a 1GW data center campus in Lowndes County, Alabama. The AI cloud provider said on November 4 that it will serve as the end user for the site, which Cloverleaf Infrastructure readied for development, and estimates the lambda.ai Featured: Official banner image from Lambda's announcement of its $33.1 billion data center campus in Lowndes County, Alabama. project represents a $33.1 billion investment in the state.

Cloverleaf Infrastructure is the project developer and prepared the land for construction. Lambda is the end user and will build and operate the AI compute on the campus. "Cloverleaf is pleased to announce that Lambda will serve as the end user for Red Clay Technology Center Campus as we continue to work together to prepare the site for development," said David Berry, co-founder and chief executive officer of Cloverleaf Infrastructure. The financial terms of the two companies' agreement were not disclosed.

The campus is planned for 1GW of capacity with room to reach 1.5GW, according to Data Center Dynamics. The site sits near the junction of U.S. Highway 80 and Alabama Highway 21 at Burkville, about six miles southwest of Montgomery. County officials describe the project as spanning 2,200 acres. The Southern Environmental Law Center has described it as an 800-acre development. Construction is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2027 and take up to five years, with first operations targeted for the fourth quarter of 2028.

Lambda estimates the project will create more than 1,000 construction jobs and support more than 225 permanent roles. Local tax revenue is projected at $2.8 billion through 2049, including more than $1.6 billion for Lowndes County Public Schools, and combined state and local collections are put at $3.4 billion. Lambda and Cloverleaf are funding a $10 million community benefits agreement with the Central Alabama Community Foundation.

Alabama Power will serve the campus, subject to regulatory approval. Opponents say the facility will request up to 1,500 MW and use 100,000 gallons of water a day, initially from the Pintlala Water System, according to al.com. Lambda says it will pay the full cost of the power and grid infrastructure so the expense is not shifted to other Alabama Power customers, and that the campus will use closed-loop cooling. Lambda and Alabama Power have both signed the White House Ratepayer Protection Pledge.

"Building a successful project starts with building strong relationships in the community," said Stephen Balaban, co-founder and chief technology officer at Lambda. "We want to understand what matters to Lowndes County residents and local leaders and ensure those perspectives inform our approach."

The announcement follows a contested approval process. The Lowndes County Commission voted 3-2 on October 13 to grant Project Red Clay a $1.15 billion tax abatement, according to the Alabama Reflector. A lawsuit filed by Protect Lowndes County, the Alabama Rivers Alliance and other plaintiffs alleges the commission violated the Alabama Open Meetings Act and Open Records Act when it approved the abatement, and asks a circuit judge to declare the votes void, WSFA reported. The commission has said the votes were legal, and a separate lawsuit against the commission is pending.

Baxtel tracks 49 data center facilities across Alabama, led by Meta with 15 sites, with Google's 50 MW Bridgeport site the largest in the state. The Montgomery metro area has 11 tracked facilities, seven of them under construction. Baxtel lists two Lambda sites: an operational 3 MW deployment at EdgeConneX's ATL02 in Atlanta and a planned campus at MidAmerica Industrial Park near Tulsa.

The Alabama Power contract still requires regulatory approval, and Lambda says additional project details will be shared as planning advances.

Related on Baxtel

Lambda To Anchor $33.1B Project Red Clay Campus In Alabama

Ready to Level Up Your Data Center Strategy?